More Than Trees Grow In Brooklyn: Check out These Five Working Farms
Brooklyn is known for a lot of things — Coney Island, the Nets, hip-hop, cheesecake. But farming? It’s probably not the first thing Brooklyn brings to mind. But working farms do exist in New York City’s most populous borough, usually with the help of some good ‘ole fashioned ingenuity and the hard work of community volunteers. These…
Brooklyn is known for a lot of things — Coney Island, the Nets, hip-hop, cheesecake. But farming? It’s probably not the first thing Brooklyn brings to mind.
But working farms do exist in New York City’s most populous borough, usually with the help of some good ‘ole fashioned ingenuity and the hard work of community volunteers. These five working farms aren’t only supporting the community, they’re adding something special to Brooklyn’s economy, too.
The “largest commercial rooftop soil farm” in the world is located right here in Brooklyn at Brooklyn Grange in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Since 2010, the Grange has grown over 50,000 pounds of produce a year on its two rooftops — one is in Long Island City, in Queens — which took about 3,000 pounds of soil to create.
The farm hosts a CSA, contributes to local farmer’s markets, and sells to local restaurants — in addition to raising egg-laying hens and cultivating bee hives.
Photo by Eagle Street
Located in Greenpoint, Eagle Street Rooftop Farm provides an incredible view of the Manhattan skyline in addition to the farm’s myriad of fruits, vegetables, chickens, and bees. The 6,000 square foot farm is located on top of a working warehouse and bikes all of its produce to local chefs, as well as hosting on-site farmer’s markets.
The farm also holds education and volunteer programs.
Photo by East New York Farms
Unlike most urban farms in Brooklyn, East New York Farms is actually a collection of smaller gardens and farms located throughout the borough. A project of United Community Centers, the farms aim to address food and health issues in underprivileged communities by involving residents in the farming and agricultural education. East New York Farms holds public farmer’s markets that include not only local produce, but also local vendors as well as goods from regional farms.
Photo by Added Value
4. Added Value
Added Value is a working farm based in Red Hook that’s been around since 2003, when the organization partnered with NYC Department of Parks and Rec to transform an entire city block into an urban agricultural site. Not only does the site provide food for local residents, chefs, and farmer’s markets, it also has a robust educational program that’s provided long-term training to almost 200 neighborhood teenagers.
#beautiful little #kale plants all in a row #urbanfarm #nbk2015 #brooklyn A photo posted by nbk_farms (@nbk_farms) on Jun 20, 2015 at 2:37pm PDT
North Brooklyn Farms is reshaping unused space at the newly demolished Domino Factory to create an urban pop-up farm that’s open to the public. The farm just broke ground this year, and will start selling at farmer’s markets later this fall. The space will also host a dinner series, educational programs, and private events like weddings.
philly = cheeseSTEAK.